Abundance index of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, from aerial visual surveys flown in August 2014 and an update on reported deaths / Jean-François Gosselin ... [et al.]. : Fs70-5/2017-019E-PDF

“The beluga is an Arctic species, and the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) population is at the southernmost limit of the species distribution. Up until 2007, the population appeared to be stable. However, unusually high numbers of young of the year found dead in 2008 and 2012, and a low aerial photographic estimate of abundance in 2009, triggered a review of the population status in 2013. Based largely on this review, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) re-evaluated the status of SLE beluga in 2014, and recommended that the population be designated as ‘Endangered’ (COSEWIC 2014). Here, we present a new abundance index of SLE beluga from a series of eight visual aerial systematic line-transect surveys flown in August and September 2014. This will be used to evaluate trends in abundance along with the 36 visual surveys completed with similar methods since 2001. We also present an update on the number of beluga carcasses that have been recovered since the last assessment (DFO 2014)"--Introd., p. 1, 2.

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